Photo auctions attract aggressive bidding: sotheby's strikes gold while Christie's sales are off

Art Business News, August, 2004 by Barden Prisant

On a final note, one particularly nifty work in the Christie's sale was a $12,000 invitation Diane Arbus sent to the modern dance instructor Valentina Livitnoff in 1967. Of course, it was not worth $12,000 back in 1967, it was just a 3- x 3-inch silver print of "A Young Waitress at a Nudist Camp, N.J." which Arbus was using as an invitation to the Museum of Modern Art show "New Documents." It is, however, emblematic of Sotheby's dominance this season that they offered two other versions of this very image, both of which fetched considerably more.

Needless to say, the pendulum may swing back in Christie's favor next season just as easily. Still, it is unfortunate that the auction galleries are so dependent upon their experts being "rainmakers," spending their time wining and dining Kozlowski-sized photo magnates.

As the economy continues to improve, one can only hope that the market for the items that average collectors can buy and sell will be carried along with it.

For reprints of this article, contact La Tonya Brumitt @ (314) 824-5504, or labrumitt@pfpublish.com.

SOURCES

* Sotheby's, (212) 606-7000

* Christie's, (212) 636-2000

* Howard Greenberg Gallery, (212) 334-0010

* Fraenkel Gallery, (415) 981-2661

RELATED ARTICLE: Painting auctions top half-billion in sales.

Just as at the photo sales, the top painting auctions this season were dominated by major consignments from a handful of powerful collectors: the Museum of Modern Art, the Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney Collection, and Christie's owner Francois Pinault, among others. There was one main difference: the relative scale of the sales. While the photo auctions grossed less than $15 million, more than a half-billion dollars of Impressionist, Modern, and Contemporary paintings and sculpture were sold at the New York auctions in May.

By far, the most significant block of works on offer was that consigned by the Whitney Collection to Sotheby's. Despite the fact that "most of the best" had already been sold or donated to museums, those 34 works fetched $190 million--fully 30 percent of the season's grand total of $634 million. Included therein was Picasso's "Garcon a la pipe," which, when it fetched $104.2 million, became the most expensive painting ever sold at auction, and the only one ever to break the $100 million mark.

Who bought it? At present, the new owner's identity is a closely guarded secret, but one of the top candidates had been Steve Wynn, the charismatic Las Vegas-casino owner. This was especially the case since he had bought the most expensive work at this season's American paintings auctions--an $8.8 million oil by John Singer Sargent which, uncoincidentally, had also hailed from the Whitney Collection. However, Wynn has since declared that he was not the buyer of the Picasso, leaving the auction-watchers still scratching their heads.

The other significant milestone of the season was the $102-million Contemporary art sale held at Christie's. It was the first time that an auction of Contemporary art had broken that magic $100 million mark. In fact, both Sotheby's and Christie's turned in strong Contemporary performances this season, with no fewer than 32 artists' records set.